Mike D'Antoni vows to add layers to Rockets' offense and...

1of2San Antonio Spurs center Pau Gasol (16) looks to pass past Houston Rockets forward Trevor Ariza (1) and guard James Harden (13) during the second half of Game 6 of the Western Conference semi-final series between the Houston Rockets and San Antonio Spurs at Toyota Center, Thursday, May 11, 2017, in Houston. (Mark Mulligan / Houston Chronicle)Photo: Mark Mulligan, Staff Photographer

2of2For James Harden and the Rockets, their shocking loss in Game 6 against the Spurs was just one pothole on their path to becoming a championship contender.Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Staff

Shocking as it was, Mike D'Antoni did not need Game 6 to demonstrate a basic truth about his team. The Rockets were not good enough.

He knew it. Had the Rockets won Game 6, instead of taking a 39-point thumping, and lost the series to San Antonio on a last-second 3 that Manu Ginobili kicked in with his eyes closed, D'Antoni still would believe the Rockets would need to get better to get where they want to go.

After the way the season ended, no one would argue. But he already had plans to make the Rockets a team that could make the significant step from a good, 55-game winner to a contender. He cited improvements ranging from developing the offense and strengthening the defense to building a roster strong enough to consider strategic rest for James Harden.

"We took a lot of positive steps," D'Antoni said. "We had a positive year, and we can't fall backwards. We know this isn't good enough. It's not good enough for anybody. So, we will get better. We will add layers to the offense and defense.

"The offense starts off, we just had one layer in, and it was pretty good, but we can add to that. Defensively is where we are going to make our most strides and, again, we are talking about being a top 10 (defense). That is the key.

"I guarantee we will get better."

Defense atop list of priorities

D'Antoni said upgrading the defense is the "first step." There is reason to believe that can be done with the talent on hand. The Rockets had the second-ranked defense in December, when they had their best stretch of the season. Before their Game 6 flop, they were the third-ranked defense in the playoffs and even in just the second round. The key, they said, is to become more consistent.

"You are selling trust," D'Antoni said. "We developed a bond between the players and the coaching staff. (Assistant coach) Jeff Bzdelik has done an incredible job. In case you hadn't noticed, we aren't a very defensive-minded team, but Jeff is creating habits and that takes a while. That's our next big step, and we will get better at that next year."

The Rockets ranked among the all-time most effective offensive teams. Even after the All-Star break, when their shooting declined, they were the top-scoring team in the NBA. But the drop of the 3-point shooting in the final six weeks of the season and the 11 games of the playoffs indicated a need to broaden the attack.

D'Antoni said he will in no way stray from his philosophy built around pace and space to shoot as exclusively as possible from the lane and 3-point line. But he wants to get those shots in a greater variety of ways.

He spoke of having Harden off the ball more often than last season's close-to-never. He said Pat Beverley could trigger offense on occasion with the starters as he did with the second unit. He spoke of ways the offense can evolve, likely adding more movement.

There was a sense, however, that as rapidly as the Rockets took to D'Antoni's offense, they can grow just by having a second season running it together.

"You look at the great organizations around the league," forward Ryan Anderson said. "You can't put together a group of players and just expect success overnight. It does take a little bit of time. You can never tell how long that is to build a championship culture. … But we have a group, you can tell, when we hit our stride in the middle of the season, when we had our time together, we realized 'Man, we're really good.' I think that's going to grow and continue to build."

In some ways, the Rockets had to view Game 6 as an aberration unrelated to all they came to believe about themselves. But they could not discount the possibility that Harden wore out or even that there were signs of fatigue in general late in the season.

D'Antoni said he could "rethink" having players rest, if the Rockets can build a team that could win with rotation players sitting out. That could require more depth than the Rockets had with an eight-player rotation.

"On me, I think it's getting more players that as you're fighting in the playoffs, coach can have the trust in to put out there," general manager Daryl Morey said. "I do think we have some young players like (Sam) Dekker, (Montrezl) Harrell and a lot of young vets, maybe players coming in, that will get to the point where he's got more guys he can trust.

"From a roster perspective, we want more depth and also from a performance perspective."

No shortcuts

The next steps could be even more difficult than going from 41 to 55 wins, one postseason win to six.

They had hoped to skip the steps it normally takes to go from a team that slipped in to the playoffs on the last day to one expecting more than a six-game, second-round exit. But before the season crashed, D'Antoni knew the building project was not done.

"We took nice steps, but we didn't take that big step we all wanted to, and we have to make it part of the process," he said. "We had a good group. We had good guys. I thought we could do it. But if you look back at the normal process, you go to the second round, the next year to the conference finals, and next year you win it. You can also go back. It's up to us to keep it going that way. We're going to dedicate everything we have to it."

Jonathan Feigen has been the Rockets beat writer since 1998 and a basketball nut since before Willis Reed limped out for Game 7. He became a sports writer because the reporter that was supposed to cover the University of Delaware basketball team decided to instead play one more season of college lacrosse and has never looked back.

Feigen, who has won APSE, APME and United States Basketball Writers Association awards from El Campo to Houston, came to Texas in 1981 to cover the Rice Birds, was Sports Editor in Garland before moving to Dallas to cover everything from the final hurrah of the Southwest Conference to SMU after the death penalty.

After joining the Houston Chronicle in 1990, Feigen has covered the demise of the SWC, the rise of the Big 12 and the Rockets at their championship best.